Episodi

  • Podcast Episode 47 – Race, Reproduction, and American Medical Science

    Podcast Episode 47 – Race, Reproduction, and American Medical Science
    Sep 1 2025

    Miriam Rich discusses her upcoming book, Monstrous Conceptions: Race, Reproduction, and Medical Science in America, 1830-1930.

    Episode Image: Cover of A Descriptive Catalogue of the Monstrosities in the Cabinet of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, published 1848. On the light brown background are the cursive red words “Jackson (J.B.S.),” a sticker with a library call number, and a blue stamp that reads “Surgeon Gen’l’s Office Library.” Image URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_descriptive_catalogue_of_the_monstrosities_in_the_cabinet_of_the_Boston_Society_for_Medical_Improvement_(IA_06730070R.nlm.nih.gov).pdf.

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    About Our Guest

    Miriam Rich, PhD is a historian and the James Wade Rockwell Assistant Professor in Philosophy of Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Her scholarship explores the history of reproduction, concepts of disability and race, and health inequities in the United States. Rich’s first book, Monstrous Conceptions, is under contract with Columbia University Press. Her interdisciplinary writing appears in The Bulletin of the History of Medicine, The American Journal of Bioethics, Isis, The Lancet, Gender & History, New Genetics and Society, and Revista Ciência & Saúde Coletiva.
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    1 ora e 9 min
  • Podcast Episode 46 – Blindness and Incurability in Early Indian Medicine

    Podcast Episode 46 – Blindness and Incurability in Early Indian Medicine
    Jul 7 2025

    Tulika Singh discusses her work on depictions of embodiment and disorder in early Indian medical texts.


    Episode Image: This image, which has an ink inscription at the bottom stating “Perforating the Eye with a Lancet in the Left Hand,” is a pencil drawing on white paper depicting the execution of one of the procedures for couching treatment of cataracts, as observed by the surgeon Peter Breton in Calcutta in 1826. The setting for the surgery is outside, and the individuals depicted are a patient, an oculist, and an assistant, all adult males dressed in traditional Indian attire. The patient is sitting close to the ground; the oculist, wearing spectacles, is sitting in front of the patient on a slightly higher footstool, using a lancet with the left hand for the patient’s right eye, with the right hand placed on the patient’s head; and the assistant is holding the patient’s head from the back. Episode Image is from Peter Breton, Esq., “On the Native Mode of Couching,” in Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, Volume 2 (Calcutta: Thacker and Co. Library, 1826). Print image URL: https://archive.org/details/s8id13658440/page/n387/mode/2up.

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    About our Guest

    Tulika Singh is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Tulika’s research interests include social, cultural, medical, and disability history with specialization in premodern India. She is writing her dissertation on concepts of bodies and disabilities in early India, in which she engages with the intersectionality of physical impairments and disabilities with caste/class, sex/gender, age, and religion based identities. Her research thus far has led to two peer-reviewed articles, including an upcoming one with Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing. In recognition of Tulika’s ongoing research in disability history, UAlberta awarded her the Field Law Leilani Muir Graduate Research Fellowship (twice) and the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship. In addition to academic research and service, Tulika works as a disability support worker to promote and advocate for disability awareness and justice in community.

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    42 min
  • Podcast Episode 45 – Advocacy, Science, and Prestige in Postwar Clinical Professions

    Podcast Episode 45 – Advocacy, Science, and Prestige in Postwar Clinical Professions
    Jul 10 2024

    Andrew J. Hogan discusses his new book, Disability Dialogues: Advocacy, Science, and Prestige in Postwar Clinical Professions.

    Episode Image: Cover of Disability Dialogues: Advocacy, Science, and Prestige in Postwar Clinical Professions by Andrew J. Hogan. The background is light green, with a blue line underlining the title.

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    About Our Guest

    Andrew J. Hogan, PhD is the Fr. Henry W. Casper, SJ Professor in History and a Professor in the Departments of History and Medical Humanities at Creighton University. Hogan’s current research examines the history of disability and racial/ethnic minority recruitment and inclusion efforts in US health professions since 1960. Other publications by Hogan include Life Histories of Genetic Disease: Patterns and Prevention in Postwar Medical Genetics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016) and peer-reviewed articles in journals including the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Isis, Social Science & Medicine, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
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    1 ora e 12 min
  • Podcast Episode 44 – The Project on Women and Disability (PWD) and Women’s Health Activism in the Late Twentieth Century

    Podcast Episode 44 – The Project on Women and Disability (PWD) and Women’s Health Activism in the Late Twentieth Century
    Mar 31 2024

    Nora O’Neill, an MD/PhD student at Yale University, discusses her research on feminist disability activism in 1980s/1990s Boston.

    Episode Image: A close-up photograph of a white t-shirt with a pink logo. In the center is the female sex symbol, a cross topped by a circle, which makes up the wheel of the wheelchair symbol that sits on top. The caption reads “Disabled Female and Proud.” This was a t-shirt found in the PWD’s archives and was likely worn by its members.

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    About Our Guest

    Nora O’Neill is an MD/PhD student at Yale University in the History of Science and Medicine Program. Prior to Yale she received her undergraduate degree in the History of Science at Harvard and completed an honors thesis on activism by women with disabilities in 1980s Boston, the project she discusses in this episode. Nora’s current research blends historical and sociological methods and explores the impact of patient activism on medical education in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She hopes to combine clinical care with teaching and research in the history of medicine in her future career as a physician-historian.
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    54 min
  • Podcast Episode 43 – Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages

    Podcast Episode 43 – Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages
    Jan 13 2024

    Doug Crandell discusses his latest book, Twenty-Two Cents an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages.

    Episode Image: Cover of Twenty-Two Centers an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages by Doug Crandell. The cover is white with twenty-two pennies laid out in four columns. The title is printed among the rows of pennies.

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    About our Guest

    Doug has worked for decades in employment and disability supports. He’s an advocate for a sibling with disabilities. In Twenty-Two Cents an Hour, he focuses on how the Disability Industrial Complex is often impenetrable, mired in deficit-thinking, and controlled by the lobbying of trade groups that do little for people with disabilities. Doug has published eight books with publishers including Penguin-Random House, Chicago Review Press, Virgin Books, and Cornell University Press. His essays on labor, mental health, and disability appear regularly in the SUN magazine. He directs the training and technical assistance center known as www.advancingemployment.com. Additional information is available at: www.dougcrandell.com and www.abolish14c.com.
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    1 ora
  • Podcast Episode 42 – Allyship, Parent Activism, and Disability Rights

    Podcast Episode 42 – Allyship, Parent Activism, and Disability Rights
    Oct 29 2023
    Allison C. Carey, Pamela Block, and Richard K. Scotch discuss their co-authored book, Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities. Episode Image: Cover of Allies and Obstacles by Allison C. Carey, Pamela Block, and Richard K. Scotch. The cover is white with a light blue border framing the title of the book and a painting underneath the title. The painting includes splotches and splashes of multi-colored paint on white canvas, with a thick streak of green paint in the middle. On top of the green streak is a red heart, outlined with a blue and white border that looks finger painted. Download mp3 file here.Download pdf transcript here. About our Guests Allison C. Carey is a Professor of Sociology, Chair of the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, and director of the MS in Organizational Development and Leadership at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. She is author of a textbook on the Sociology of Disability, Disability and the Sociological Imagination (2022, Sage), as well as On the Margins of Citizenship: Intellectual Disability and Civil Rights in Twentieth Century America (2009, Temple University Press), and co-author of Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities (2020). She has co-edited several volumes, including two with the book series Research in Social Science and Disability with Emerald Press and now serves as its series co-editor. Allies and Obstacles was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Publication Award from the Disability and Society section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the 2021 Scholarly Achievement Award from the North Central Sociological Association. In 2021 she was awarded the Outstanding Career in the Sociology of Disability by the Disability and Society section of ASA. Pamela Block is a Professor of Anthropology at Western University. Her research interests include disability culture, cultural perceptions of disability, and the intersections of disability, sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, and social status. She studies disability experience on individual, organizational and community levels, with past funded research involving socio-environmental barriers, empowerment/capacity-building, and health promotion. Her qualitative research methodologies combine historical and discourse analyses with community-based ethnographic, autoethnographic, and participatory approaches. She is particularly interested in movements for disability liberation (justice and rights) and disability oppression (eugenics, sterilization, mass-incarceration and killing) in Brazil, the United States and Canada Richard K. Scotch is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy & Political Economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. His teaching includes courses on medical sociology, public health, social stratification, and social and health policy, while his research focuses on a variety of social policy topics related to disability, health, and education. Dr. Scotch received his B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago in 1973 and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from Harvard University in 1975 and 1982 respectively. Prior to joining the UTD faculty in 1983, Dr. Scotch worked on the evaluation staff of the Virginia Division for Children and as an analyst with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1982-1983, Dr. Scotch served as a Congressional Science Fellow in the office of U.S. Representative Paul Simon (D-Ill). Dr. Scotch is the author of several books and numerous articles and monographs on social policy reform and social movements in disability, health care, education, and human services including. From Good Will to Civil Rights, Disability and Community, Disability Protests: Contentious Politics 1970-1999. His 2020 book, coauthored with Pam Block and Allison Carey, is Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities; the book received “best book” awards from the North Central Sociological Association and the Section on Disability in Society of the American Sociological Association. His current research projects include a follow-up edited volume of narratives by activist parents of children with disabilities, interviews with political candidates with disabilities, and a five-year study with Dohyeong Kim that examines social and community barriers experienced by burn injury survivors. Dr. Scotch serves as a reviewer for numerous professional journals, university presses, private foundations, and government agencies. He has been active in the local health and human service community in North Texas for four decades, working with agencies that include the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority, Collin County, Dallas County, the Dallas Healthy Start Initiative, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, Educational First Steps, the Texas Pride Impact Funds, and Parkland Health and Hospital System. **If you would ...
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    1 ora e 23 min
  • Podcast Episode 41 – Disability, Adoption, Risk, and the Modern American Family

    Podcast Episode 41 – Disability, Adoption, Risk, and the Modern American Family
    Jul 16 2023

    Sandy Sufian discusses her latest book, Familial Fitness: Disability, Adoption, and Family in Modern America.

    Episode Image: Cover of Familial Fitness by Sandra M. Sufian. The cover is white with an indigo blue newborn’s footprint on it. The footprint looks like the prints taken for birth certificates right after a baby is born.

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    About our Guest

    Sandy Sufian is a historian of medicine and disability at University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds joint appointments in the Department of Medical Education in the College of Medicine (Health Humanities) and in the Department of Disability and Human Development in the College of Applied Health Sciences. She is cofounder of the Cystic Fibrosis Reproductive and Sexual Health Collaborative and serves on the editorial board of Disability Studies Quarterly. Her most recent book is Familial Fitness: Disability, Adoption, and Family in Modern America, a history of the adoption of children with disabilities in the US during the twentieth century.

    Sandy studies how biological and contextual factors interact to shape disability and illness experiences. She centers patients’ voices in her research to best understand the complexity of their lives and their health status. She is specifically interested in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, chronic illness, family and kinship, and best-practices for patient-centered research outcomes. She teaches graduate and medical students about patient-centered and contextual care, social aspects of illness and disability, and the social and structural determinants of health.
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    1 ora e 32 min
  • Podcast Episode 40 – Disability History in Eastern Europe: A Roundtable Discussion

    Podcast Episode 40 – Disability History in Eastern Europe: A Roundtable Discussion
    Apr 10 2023

    Guest host Isabelle Avakumovic-Pointon talks with Dr. Maria Bucur, Dr. Frances Bernstein, Dr. Maria Cristina Galmarini, and Dr. Magdalena Zdrodowska about the history of disability in Eastern Europe.

    Episode image: A disabled Soviet veteran with no legs sits in a wheelchair that rolls several inches above the ground. He sits on a street curb surrounded by standing military personnel on his right hand side. A small crowd of children stand to his right and look down at him.

    Download mp3 file here.

    Download pdf transcript here.

    Download show notes (compiled by Isabelle Avakumovic-Pointon) here.

    About our Guests

    Dr. Maria Bucur is Professor of Gender Studies and History at Indiana University in the USA. She has published extensively on gender, eugenic, medicine, and disability in interwar and state socialist Romania. Professor Bucur’s first book, Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania, was published in 2002. Her current research project focuses on developing a platform for the study of the history of disabilities in Eastern Europe.

    Dr. Frances Bernstein is Associate Professor of History at Drew University in New Jersey, USA. the mid-twentieth century. Her research focuses on disability, gender, sexuality, medicine, and the body in the Soviet context. Professor Bernstein’s first book, The Dictatorship of Sex: Lifestyle Advice for the Soviet Masses was published in 2007. Her current book project is titled City of Broken Men: Disability, Memory, and Masculinity at the End of World War Two.

    Dr. Maria Cristina Galmarini is Associate Professor of History and Global Studies at William & Mary University in Virginia, USA. Her research focuses on social rights for marginalized groups, especially people with disabilities, in the early Soviet Union. Professor Galmarini’s first book, The Right to Be Helped: Entitlement, Deviance, and the Soviet Moral Order, was published in 2016 by Northern Illinois University Press. She has an upcoming book, titled Ambassadors of Social Progress A History of International Blind Activism in the Cold War, which will be published in Winter 2023.

    Dr. Magdalena Zdrodowska is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Audiovisual Art at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Her research focuses on the history of Deafness, disability, media, and technology. Professor Zdrodowska’s latest book is titled Telephones, cyborgs, and cinema: Entangled relations between deafness and technology and was published in Polish in 2021. Her current research project is titled The Deaf History of Cinema. Professor Zdrodowska is also an advocate for disability studies in Poland, and she is the Chair of the Disability Studies in Eastern Europe-Reconfigurations research platform.

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    1 ora e 23 min